my new topic of research

/ ink cartridge chandelier by boxlightbox /

i met today with an exhibit curator, bettina, who is doing some work at te manawa here in palmy. my museum studies coordinator linked us up because bettina is putting together a new environmental exhibit at the whanganui museum (formerly wanganui) that is due to open in july of this year. the concept is pretty simple, but apparently she has a pretty non-existent budget, so the way she's doing it makes a lot of sense. anyway, i'll be helping out in whatever way i can in order to gain some experience behind the scenes of a museum exhibition. i will probably be doing background research and locating materials, perhaps even writing up some labels.

/ recycled ring-pull clutch bag from the london natural history museum /

i told bettina all about my art/science background and she said i would be perfectly suited for museum work because of my broad interests and ability to be creative and technical at the same time. she's really keen to get me involved (probably because i'm free labour, haha) and she seems like she's willing to let me dive right in and experience as much as possible. with her support of course. she informed me that there is a second phase to this exhibit that's meant to open toward the end of this year that she won't be involved in, but if i get along well enough with the whanganui museum people, they might invite me to participate in some capacity in the next one. that could potentially be very exciting as this one has a wider environmental focus and they're apparently planning to incorporate their vast bird collection. it just might help that i've had a little bit of bird experience lately :)